Israel seeks implementing five settlement expansion plans in Al-Quds within its Judaization scheme

Within the framework of its Judaization scheme in occupied Al-Quds, the Israeli occupation is going ahead with implementing five new settlement expansion plans in the city with the aim of making a demographic change in favor of the Israeli settlers. To serve this goal, the occupation continues to demolish the Palestinians’ houses in Al-Quds and displace the population in a flagrant violation of the international resolutions which affirm the illegality of settlement building activities in the occupied territories and call for halting them.

In its weekly report published on Saturday, the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements, said that the Israeli occupation authorities have announced five plans to establish 3557 settlement units in Al-Quds to impose wide-scale demographic changes that accelerate the implementation of the occupation’s scheme to judaize the city.

 These plans are concentrated in the south of Al-Quds with the aim of separating the city from Bethlehem, and in the center of Al-Quds to separate its neighborhoods from each others, the report clarified.

 According to the report, the occupation forces escalated house demolition in the city. They forced two Palestinian families to demolish their own houses in  the towns of Silwan and Sour Baher and forced a Palestinian to demolish his shop in Al-Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. The occupation forces also demolished a commercial facility in Al-Za’eem town as well as two houses in the towns of Jabal Al-Mukabber and Silwan. They also seized 3 dunums of Palestinian land in Wadi Al-Rababa neighborhood, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The report went on to say that the occupation forces demolished 4 houses and 9 agricultural facilities, north of Tubas town, and delivered notifications to 8 families to demolish their houses in Nahaleen town, west of Bethlehem and two houses in Jenin city. They also razed 250 dunums of Palestinian land in the town of Kafr Al-Deek in Salfit city in order to expand settlement building operations.

 Moreover, the report said, the Israeli settlers stormed a market in Al-Quds old city and forced the Palestinians to close their shops. They also attacked the Palestinians’ houses and properties in Al-Khalil city as well as the archeological area in Sebastia town in Nablus.

According to the report, the settlers also razed swathes of Palestinian land in Al-Kheder town in Bethlehem to establish a settlement road, seized lands in Ariha to build a settlement outpost and attacked the Palestinian agricultural lands in Salfit where they stole 80 olive plants. They also attacked herders in some areas in the northern Jordan Valley.

Hamda Mustafa